Hello, all.
First of all, I want to thank Michael Giordano for hooking me up with this site. Thanks for all your hard work.
I assume that most of you know by now that the raffle we held for the condo and car has already taken place. We drew the winning ticket on the Bonnie Hunt Show back at the end of March. The lucky winner was a nurse by the name of Tammy Ayers. Tammy actually already lived down in Florida and was extremely excited about the whole thing...duh...who wouldn't be. Anyhow, the raffle is over (thank God) and now we're on to the rest of this journey. I do want to thank Sandy Fitzgerald, the owner of Pohanka Automotive in Salisbury, MD. It was Sandy's condo that we raffled off and this whole thing would never have happened if it wasn't for her love and generosity. She's the best boss I could have ever asked for and a great friend that I will always be indebted to. Also, Chris Hagel definitely deserves another thank you. Chris is the one that worked so hard for so many hours for a solid year to make sure that the raffle was successful. It was his hard work and determination that made it the success that it was. Chris used every connection he had to get us local exposure and the national exposure that was vital to the whole thing. Thanks, Chris. Great job!! There are so many people that helped make the drawing such a tremendous success. Other than Sandy and Chris...Robin Hagel, Lisa Swan, Brad Bellacicco, all the volunteers that helped stuff envelopes, the Salisbury Area Chamber Foundation, many of the employees of Pohanka Automotive, all my friends who helped sell tickets...literally thousands of people who spent their hard-earned money to buy a ticket or ticketS...so many people it's impossible to thank you all, but you know who are!! Thank you so much. Two more people though that I really want to point out. The first is Bonnie Hunt. Without her compassion and her relentless promotion of my story, the raffle would not have been nearly as successful as it ended up being. I know I've said it before; and she is definitely not looking for more thanks, but I will be forever greatful to her. Bonnie, you have a fan, and more importantly, a friend for life. Thank you so much. Without the exposure that we got on her show, I probably would have never made it. Because of her, my story reached the right person, who has promised to donate the money we will need to make sure that the transplant happens ASAP. We are simply referring to that person as our anonymous angel. Thank you so much, whoever you may be. You have literally saved my life. Lastly I need to thank my wife, Vicki. Without her support, love, encouragement, compassion, wisdom and faith I never would have been able to make it through all this. She has held our family together through all this and has been the strongest I've ever seen her be. I love you, baby! Now and forever.
Okay...now for the latest...I stopped working at Pohanka back at the end of April. It was a very hard decision to make, but I just couldn't do it any more. It was just something that I knew would happen sooner or later, but I just didn't want to leave. I miss working there so much!! But since I left, I've made a lot of progress. I am now dealing with Inova Hospital, up in Fairfax, VA. I dumped Temple University Hospital after a while ago due to the total unprofessional way they were handling, or NOT handling my case. Anyhow, that turned out to be another blessing in disguise. Ever since our first contact with the staff at Inova, I have been very pleased with the professionalism and the respect that they have shown us. What a great group of people!!
Over the last couple of months, I've gone through pretty much every medical test known to man. I've gone through what the docs refer to as the "million dollar physical." Thankfully, I've passed all the exams with flying colors. It's funny...you have to be sick enough to where a transplant is the only option left, but not so sick that you won't make it through successfully. And, since the lung issues are the only issues that I have, I made it through. After going through all of the tests and meeting with a bunch of different people indivdually, they all got together, compared notes and actually voted on what to do with me. They could have decided on one of three possibilities...yes, transplant...no, don't transplant...or transplant, but not just yet. Last Thursday they had their meeting, voted and decided yes, transplant. I received the phone call that afternoon and was given the news that I've been waiting to hear for a few years now. THANK GOD!!
So, the next step is to go back up to Inova tomorrow so I can sign the final paperwork, and get the final amount finalized. Once that's done, I get placed on the transplant waiting list. So, I figure I should be on the waiting list within a week or so at the most. Then, it's just a matter of time until a matching donor is found. Unfortunately, the nature of a double lung transplant cannot be scheduled in advance. So I just have to be ready to go when Inova calls me. And, one thing I can tell you for sure...I WILL BE!!
So, that's where I am as of today. Now that I know how to use this blog, I'll try to update it often, as I know that there are a lot of people whom I've met over the last year or so that want to know what's happening. Thank you for caring. God bless you all and take care. We'll talk again soon.
Your friend, Chuck